


Trash Cans, Jambalaya and Clues

by SummerInAmsterdam



Series: EtNuary [7]
Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), Scooby Doo - All Media Types, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: (how did it take me so long to find those tags what-), Alternate Universe - Scooby Doo Fusion, Clues, Everyone keeps getting scared!, Gen, I made Calvin a ghost in this, Mystery, Scooby Doo Style Mysteries & Hijinks, Spooky, Teala's POV, Teala's easily spooked, Well everyone else is spooked too to be fair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:21:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22168555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummerInAmsterdam/pseuds/SummerInAmsterdam
Summary: After a close call with a ghost, the gang meets back up, but not quite in an orderly fashion. On the bright side, they may have a clue!EtNuary Day 7: Teala Dunn
Series: EtNuary [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589350
Comments: 8
Kudos: 19





	Trash Cans, Jambalaya and Clues

**Author's Note:**

> Just for context's sake, since this is part of the Scooby Doo AU, I feel like I should mention that I classify Teala as one of the ones who are the most easily scared. I've kinda been having fun writing her with a Fight or Flight response that has a mind of it's own. Hope you enjoy!

The gang just came to New Orleans for a fun vacation for a couple of days. Just a few nice, relaxing days of food, jazz music, and to top it all off, they were there during Mardi Gras. It should have been fun, right? Well, what Teala didn’t count on was hunting down the ghost of a killer who used his victims as creepy art pieces! She was  _ not  _ in the mood to become a mannequin, thank you very much.

And yet, there she was with Manny and Joey. All three of them were running down Bourbon Street from Jackson Square after running into the killer’s ghost himself - creatively nicknames “The Sculptor.”

Teala really wanted to know why the gang always did this kind of scary stuff at night. She got that they were looking for The Sculptor of New Orleans, but why couldn’t they just investigate this stuff during the middle of the day? Maybe in a meadow full of daisies and bunnies.

But nope! They just  _ had  _ to be investigating a supposed ghost in the heart of one of the most haunted cities in the country. They just had to be running through the streets in the middle of the night. And they just  _ had  _ to choose a dark, spooky ally lined with a bunch of trash cans to hide in.

“Okay…” Joey said breathlessly when they finally stopped. “I think we lost him!”

Manny wrinkled his nose at the sight of the ally. “Ugh. Why couldn’t we have just gone to the French Quarter?”   


“Seriously,” Teala agreed. “That place is  _ way _ less creepy!”

Teala was glad she had someone like Manny in the gang who actually had  _ sense _ when it came to these types of things. Well, there was Rosanna, too. She was about as wary about monsters and stuff as they were. But if food was involved, that girl was pretty much set to do anything.

“Because Roi, Ro and Colleen are already in the French Quarter,” Joey told them. “And the rest of the gang should be somewhere around here.”

Okay, Joey had a point there. Before the gang split up, they’d all decided to search different places close to each other. Teala and Manny went with Joey to Jackson Square to search for signs of the Sculptor. Rosanna, Colleen and Roi went to the French Quarter, but Teala suspected they just wanted to get some more beignets or something. As for Matt, Nikita, Safiya and Jc, they should have been around there somewhere. But where were they?

“Okay, okay,” Joey said, trying to calm the group down. “The Sculptor could be anywhere by now. We gotta regroup with the rest of the gang and figure out what to do next.”

Manny pouted. “I bet  _ Nikita  _ would wanna go to the French Quarter,” he complained.

All of a sudden, one of the lids of the trash can flew off with a loud  _ CRASH! _ The group screamed and clung to each other, only to see Nikita shooting out of one of the nearby cans. 

“Someone say ‘French Quarter?’” Nikita asked.

“ _ Nikita! _ ” Manny exclaimed. “Oh, thank God it’s just you.”

“You scared the shit out of us!” Joey exclaimed.

“Well,  _ duh, _ I can see that,” Nikita said. “Like, I just popped out of a trash can. It would be weird if I  _ didn’t  _ scare you.”

Teala sighed, partly out of relief, partly out of annoyance. “Well, warn us next time you decide to do that, okay?!”

A shrill cry of “  _ WARNING!!! _ ” sounded off from a can right next to Teala. The gang, including Nikita, screamed in response. Teala’s fight or flight took over, and she instinctively kicked the can hard as she jumped back.

“ _ Ow! _ ” the can griped. Matt popped out of the can, letting the lid fall to the ground. “Hey, what the heck?! You said to warn you!”

“Oh, crap!” Teala exclaimed. “Sorry, Matt!”

“It’s fine,” Matt groaned, rubbing his head. Teala hoped he didn’t get hit too hard. “Anyway, what are you guys doing here? We thought you guys were checking Jackson Square.”

“Yeah,” Nikita added. “Any luck finding the Sculptor?”

“Almost,” Joey said. “We thought we cornered him for a second, but then  _ he  _ cornered  _ us. _ ”

Manny added, “He snuck up on us, and I kinda ended up slamming a crockpot on his head.”

Teala nodded. “And then I wacked the pot with a wooden spoon, and Joey pushed him into a pile of powdered sugar. Long story short, we don’t know where he is.”

Another trash can crashed open to reveal Safiya inside. “What do you  _ mean  _ ‘you don’t know where he is?!’”

Everyone screamed again. Manny and Nikita grabbed each other’s shoulders. Matt flailed his arms and almost fell over. Teala jumped into Joey’s arms, almost in a bridal carry fashion.

“Dammit, Safiya!” Joey scolded her.

“Oh, come on,” Safiya said, rolling her eyes. “I’m not  _ that _ intimidating.”

Teala’s heart was going at a mile a minute. She was shaking from all the adrenaline left over from the past few minutes. As much as she loved that the human body had a fight or flight response, she really wished her response would chill out for once! Not to mention that she wished that the gang would stop popping out of those cans like Jack-in-the-Boxes!

“Oh, my God!” Teala griped as Joey let her back on her feet. “Are the others hiding in these trash cans, too?!”

Colleen’s voice came from inches behind her. “What trash cans?” 

Everyone screamed for a fourth time. Joey threw himself into Safiya’s trash can, and they both ducked down inside. Matt’s flailing successfully tipped his can over, knocking down Nikita’s can in the process. Manny scooped Teala into his arms and held her up by her waist. It wasn’t until Manny had leaped onto a crate when Teala realized it was the French Quarter group.

“Woah, guys!” Colleen exclaimed, holding her hand up for calm. “Chill out, it’s just us! What’s going on?!”

She was holding a little bowl of jambalaya in her other hand, and Rosanna and Roi both had similar bowls.

Teala sighed.  _ As I suspected, _ she thought.

“Guys?!” Matt exclaimed, trying to push himself up. “Where were you?!”

Joey and Safiya poked their heads out of their can. Joey asked, “And why do you have jambalaya?”

Roi shrugged. “Well, we found a clue, so we thought we’d get some jambalaya before meeting back up with you all.”

Rosanna picked up her spoon and took a bite. She shut her eyes and nodded, immensely satisfied. “I’ll tell you what, guys. No jambalaya will ever compare to the authentic kind we’ve been getting here!”

_ Who cares?! _ Teala wanted to scream. She had it up to her neck with being scared so many times!

“ _ Okay! _ ” Teala shrieked. She pulled her arm out of Manny’s grasp and pointed at the farthest two trash cans on the right that hadn’t opened yet. “If Jc pops up out of one of those cans back there, I’m gonna  _ scream! _ ...Again.”

Jc’s voice came from one of the trash cans. “Alright, fine, I’ll just stay in here!” His voice was muffled around the metal.

Joey held up both of his hands. “O-freakin’-kay! Now that we’ve all stopped scaring each other, are we all present and accounted for?”

Teala scanned the ally. It seemed all ten of them were, indeed, present and accounted for. “Yep,” she confirmed.

“Looks like it,” Colleen added, shoving some jambalaya in her mouth.

“We’re all here, girl,” Manny said, and he slowly set Teala back down.

Joey nodded. “Alright, first things first. Roi, Colleen, Ro, what was that clue you guys found?”

“Here,” Rosanna said. “Check this out.”

She reached into the pocket of her jacket, and pulled out a couple of slips of paper. She reached over and handed them to Joey and Safiya.   


“We thought they could have been receipts or something,” Colleen told them.

“Looks like they are,” Safiya confirmed. “From a jeweler’s shop.”

Joey leaned closer to the receipts to get a better look. “Pretty expensive jewelry, too.”

“Jewelry, huh?” Jc asked from inside his can. “Like the jewelry we saw on the mannequins earlier?”

“Maybe,” Roi said. “One of them was a necklace, and that thing cost quite a penny.”

Now, Teala thought that was a little odd. From what she knew, the Sculptor always used his victims clothes for his “pieces.” What would he have needed with brand new jewelry?   


“Wait a sec,” Manny said. “Before anything else… why the hell were you guys in trash cans just now?”

Oh, yeah. That was a little weird, too.

“Well, we  _ were _ hiding from the Sculptor,” Nikita told them as she and Matt pushed themselves to their feet. “But judging from some of your stories, he’s long gone by now.”

Matt crossed his arms thoughtfully. “Well, in that case, we need to figure out where he went.”

“How are we gonna narrow it down?” Teala wanted to know. “He could be anywhere in the city by now!”

At that moment, someone rattled around in one of the trash cans that hadn’t been open yet.

Teala bristled a bit, but refused to let herself jump again. “Jc! Now isn’t the time for that!”

“What are you talking about?” Jc asked. “I’m not even doing anything.”

“You’re not?”

“No?” Jc carefully pushed the lid of his trash can off. It turned out he was hiding in the second to last one from the right. “I was just chilling in my trash can over here.”

_ Uh-oh… _

Safiya asked the question Teala was almost too afraid to ask. “Wait. If you’re in  _ that _ one, then who’s…”

All of a sudden, a familiar looking figure burst out of the last trash can. His skin was pale as paper, and there were dark circles all the way around his milky white eyes. His suit was worn and stained with what Teala hoped against hope was just strawberry jam. He laughed his eerie maniacal laugh as he pulled his dagger out with him.

“ _ Did you miss me?! _ ” The man bellowed.

Teala grabbed hold of Manny and Roi. “It’s the Sculptor!” she cried.

“ _ Everybody, RUN! _ ” Joey shrieked.

Anyone who was still in trash cans leapt out, and the gang took off running. As the routine went, the Sculptor gavee chase.

**Author's Note:**

> Lock your doors! Razor boy's out tonight!
> 
> I kinda want to use this for another Scooby-Doo story in the future, not gonna lie


End file.
